Big Goals
The Science of Setting Them, Achieving Them, and Creating Your Best Life
Caroline is tied for first as my all-time favorite PRACTICAL Positive Psychologist. She has a gift for bringing the empirical wisdom from academia alive in the pages of her books. I’m inspired not just by the wisdom she shares in her books, but how she's committed to embodying that wisdom in her life. So I was honored when Caroline invited me to write the foreword to this book. As I said in the foreword, there are a LOT of books on goal setting out there but if you’re looking for a SCIENCE-BACKED approach to setting goals, this is the one to get.
Big Ideas
“Just as the Renaissance created a more evidence-based approach to many fields, I believe it’s time for us to move into learning and embracing a science-backed approach to goal accomplishment through goal setting theory (GST) and the BRIDGE (Brainstorming, Relationships, Investments, Decision-Making, Good Grit, and Excellence) framework that I’ve spent years testing and refining. Let’s do away with fantasy approaches like “The Law of Attraction” and learn how to master our environments in ways that build resilience, optimism, and grit. Let’s go from dreaming about big goals to undertaking the journey to make them a reality, regardless of how hard we must work to overcome challenges and not get a trophy at the end of the day.
I believe that every one of us is responsible for leading ourselves to our best performances in work and life. We can’t expect others to do this for us, so my goal is for every reader to learn the skills and behaviors here to develop and enjoy the fruits of a more proactive approach to life. This mindset shift will lead you to a more fulfilling and purpose-driven existence and equip you with the tools to overcome procrastination and work disengagement. By the end of this book, you will have the practical strategies for developing resilience and grit to use every day in your personal and professional lives. The timeless nature of the principles ensures that the book will remain relevant for years to come, and possibly become the new classic in the goal setting field.
Ready to go? Let’s get started!”
~ Caroline Adams Miller from Big Goals
This is the third Note we’ve created on one of Caroline Adams Miller’s books.
We started with Getting Grit, then we covered Creating Your Best Life. As I mentioned in both of those Notes, Caroline is one of my all-time favorite Positive Psychologists.
In fact, she’s at least tied for first as my all-time favorite PRACTICAL Positive Psychologist—as she has a gift for bringing the empirical wisdom from academia alive in the pages of her books.
I’ve been blessed to get to know Caroline over the last couple years and I’m inspired by not just the wisdom she shares in her great books but the wisdom she is so committed to embodying in her life.
And... I was deeply honored when Caroline invited me to write the foreword to this book. As I said in the foreword, there are a LOT of books on goal setting out there but... If you’re looking for a SCIENCE-BACKED approach to setting goals, this is the one to get. (Get a copy here.)
As you’d expect, the book is packed with Big Ideas. And, as always, I’m excited to share a few of my favorites so let’s get straight to work!
P.S. One of the things Caroline and I bonded over in our Heroic Chat with Masters (check that out here!) is the fact that we need to do a better job at shining a BRIGHT LIGHT on the WOMEN who have shaped our understanding of how we can activate our Heroic potential AND the women who have served as exemplars of our Heroic ideals.
With that in mind, I want to encourage you to check out our Notes on some of my favorite books by women I deeply admire including: The How of Happiness and The Myths of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Love 2.0 by Barbara Fredrickson, Grit by Angela Duckworth, Mindset and Self-Theories by Carol Dweck, Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson, Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff, The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile, and Happy Together by Suzie Pawelski (and her husband, James!).
Thus, if learning how to achieve important goals to feel masterful satisfies a basic human need, and we are born helpless, it means that one of the greatest tools we can learn or teach others is the science of how to accomplish the big goals that are key to thriving. This is my mission.
The good news is that the science already exists in Locke and Latham’s goal setting theory, and it is universally acclaimed, but rarely included, in any of today’s popular productivity approaches. Any success strategy must start with an understanding of their seminal theory, which ought to be required learning in every school in the world.
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